12/2/09

I am asked, often, about how I come up with my crazy-kicked up ideas. Well, I admit I watch a lot of food tv shows, either on the Food Network or on PBS. (btw, Emeril Greenon Planet Green is pretty good too). When I watch these shows I see what they are doing and always, always, always want to do it differently than what they did. The only time this does not happen is this seasons' Top Chef: Las Vegas; I'm blown away by the huge amount of talent. Almost every single dish they've made I am sitting there saying 'holy moly how very clever'! You know? Season one was sooo good too.I keep a notepad with me almost at all times: there is one in the car, one on my nightstand, and one at my desk. The others times I carry one with me because I do get a lot of ideas when I'm at the gym or walking about. I'd say I get most of my ideas at night just before bed, and in the middle of the night to as I'm trying to fall asleep my mind just races with ideas. My list of 'to-make' is long, oh so very long; I finally resorted to typing them into my computer years ago or else I would be like those old college professors with papers, stack of papers, and stick-it's all over the place. I'm sort of a neat freak so that wouldn't fly. I am up to over 30 typed pages of ideas, not to mention the stack of recipes I printed from other food bloggers. I am very guilty of making more sweets than meals. My first love is french cooking, and I haven't been good about keeping that end up lately it seems.

Just like every chef and cook alike I have a fairly large cookbook collection. A lot of inspiration comes from cookbooks. One of my favorite things to do is look through a newer cookbook, ear-mark something, then go research almost the same thing in an old cookbooks and try to fuse the two together. Collecting old cookbooks is an addictive behaviour of mine that I don't get to practice as much as I'd like. Here on cape cod there are a lot of old, rotting bookstores with ginormous piles of neglected books; it takes hours to find the cookbooks because nothing is labeled and most of the people who go there prefer literary novels and the like, so the cookbooks are like those rug warehouses where the best carpets are at the very bottom! Don't get me started on the old, mile-long bookstores in NYC. That is heaven!! What I love about the older cookbooks: those food stains/mug stains on the pages, the withering ear-marked pages, and of course the old book smell--Love that old book smell!

There are so many food-creations I make that never make it to the food blog or are sitting in the photo archives. But I shall change that as most of you said you have no problem seeing my recipe-fails. This pretzel shortbread inspiration came from an old food & wine magazine--orignally it was a pretzel crust with chocolate filling type pie. I wanted to see if I could make shortbread with it. Came out ok, but for whatever reason they go stale fast--lasting only a couple days after being baked & dipped. Will I make this again? Not so sure, this is one of my recipe-fail ones, but I might if I add in more sugar and a hint of vanilla to it next time around.

In a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter with 3/4 cup of the pretzels and the confectioners’ sugar at low speed until creamy.Beat in the flour, egg, and salt.Add the remaining 1/2 cup of pretzels, being sure to leave some pretzel pieces intact.Flatten the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 30 minutes. I only flattened them to ½ - ¾ inch thick—you don’t want them too thin.Preheat the oven to 350°.Roll out the dough between the sheets of plastic wrap. Cut them into circles of strips, whatever shape you desire. Place onto parchment lined cookie sheet.Bake for about 10 minutes or until tops are almost light golden brown. These bake FAST! Once they turn a medium brown they are no good.Let them cool a bit before dipping in melted chocolate. When you are ready to dip them make sure to let them set on parchment paper.Note: these do not keep more than 2 days. They get stale fairly fast for whatever reason.

Perhaps one could use crushed pretzels as the base (instead of saltines) for a treat I found recently. Pour over 1 c. br. sugar + 3/4 c butter (boiled for 3 minutes), bake at 375 for 5 minutes and then drop choc chips over till they melt and spread over the whole thing. Cool and then break into pieces.

I have a lot of recipes in my archives ready to be blogged about- A LOT! And yet I can't seem to blog about them because I either didn't love them or because the pictures didn't turn out as I expected. I guess I should get over that!

Maybe they wouldn't go stale as quickly is you completely coated them in chocolate. hmmm?

Dawn I have a ton of recipe fails. Right down the pig they go too. The cookies are a great idea, too bad. I bet the moisture of the chocolate gets into those pretzels and makes them go out too quickly on you. Thanks for sharing the way you get inspired to come up with new ideas. I get mine in the shower or grocery store, baking isle- but I am dressed in the isle;-) 30 pages is impressive! I could see the headlines now- "food blogger found buried under her stash of recipe ideas" Have a great weekend Dawn!

I'm almost relieved to hear that someone else digs through old cookbooks for inspiration on new recipes. I spend much too much time comparing and contrasting. But I can see by your latest creation it's worth it! Looks tasty!

I appreciate reading about kitchen failures. Not only does it give us an opportunity to learn from each other but a chance to solve what a recipe's problem might have been. Plus lets be honest and keep it real not every recipe is a hit.

Hey, I wanted to let you know that Emma is on prednisone but they wanted to start her on it every other day. Well now she is on twice a day everyday until we make sure she doesnt' have another attack then we will go down to once a day. Otherwise, I am getting the breathe easy tube tomorrow for an easier way to give her the inhaler when she does have an attack. The emergency room sent me home with a makeshift one saying that was good enough but it wasn't! Ugh.

I also always carry a notepad with me for my food ideas! I think even if I baked something everyday I would never fifnish my list ahahah! I would love these, even if they don't last long. That's not a problem to me, I'm a fast eater ;)

I miss the days of Yen Can Cook on PBS. Heck I grew up loving that show. I have not really gotten into Food Network lately because they seem to be more focused on showiness versus quality. Top Chef also freaking amazes me.

Oh, you're just like me, I'm a total fan of those old piles of unwanted cookbooks that you have to trawl through! :) And I am frequently astonished by your creativity and your bravery when you approach the kitchen - I would never have considered making these! :)

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com